Name: Chocolate Cake
Ingredients: 1 pound powdered sugar; ½ pound butter, softened; ½ pound grated chocolate; 8 large eggs, beaten; Juice of 1 large lemon; 1 tablespoon vanilla extract; 1½ cups milk; Flour, sifted with baking powder

Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, cream together the powdered sugar and softened butter until light and fluffy.
Add the grated chocolate and mix well.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until light and fluffy, then add to the chocolate mixture.
Stir in the lemon juice and vanilla extract.
Gradually add the milk and sifted flour with baking powder until the batter is smooth and thick enough to hold its shape.
Pour the batter into a jelly-cake pan, layering with ordinary cake on the top and bottom, and filling with jelly or coconut in between.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,020 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, chocolate, egg, vanilla, milk, flour):

Coconutfits better
Figfits better
Raisinfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, chocolate, egg, vanilla, milk, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.